I've decided not to pump when I come back to work from winter vacation in January. I'm worried that once I stop pumping at work that my supply will completely crash and that we will have to stop nursing, but it's a risk I'm willing to take. She will be 13 months, so will have I met my goal of nursing for a year.

I'm not ready to quit nursing, but I'm so DONE pumping at work. I can't wait to wear clothes that don't require easy access to the boob. Oh, and on that note, I am so ready to wear a regular bra again! I hate how frumpy I look in my nursing bra.

Butternut, a friend of mine is a teacher going back to teach after taking a year off, and her school (in NJ) won't give her a space to pump bc according to them after a year you're not entitled to an accommodation for pumping.

I can't believe Babynut is almost 13 months! Where does time go?

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

I've decided not to pump when I come back to work from winter vacation in January. I'm worried that once I stop pumping at work that my supply will completely crash and that we will have to stop nursing, but it's a risk I'm willing to take. She will be 13 months, so will have I met my goal of nursing for a year.

I'm not ready to quit nursing, but I'm so DONE pumping at work. I can't wait to wear clothes that don't require easy access to the boob. Oh, and on that note, I am so ready to wear a regular bra again! I hate how frumpy I look in my nursing bra.

Good luck! I am looking forward to ending pumping too, but I have the same worries. I am not sure exactly when I am going to stop pumping. I am still planning on going to the end of January to make it to a year.

Butternut, a friend of mine is a teacher going back to teach after taking a year off, and her school (in NJ) won't give her a space to pump bc according to them after a year you're not entitled to an accommodation for pumping.

I can't believe Babynut is almost 13 months! Where does time go?

That's BS. I hope she can figure out something that will work for her.

And for the record, I pump in my closet at work. That's right! A closet. It's a roomy closet, but a closet all the same.

lydia has been nursing like crazy lately... like every hour or more often. it's wearing. i have been getting one long stretch at night at least, but i have to nurse her for a solid hour before hand... so i start nursing at 9pm on one side, burp, switch sides, burp, switch sides again, burp, maybe switch one last time and then wait for the last burp and then i can swaddle her and get her to sleep without needing to be ON me for maybe 4 hours? last night it was 5, which was pretty much bliss.

i is tired.

i have no idea what i'm going to do with pumping/nursing once i go back to work. she'll be 10 months, so she'll need formula if i don't pump, which i'm not thrilled about, but i really don't think i want to start pumping at that stage either. i didn't produce particularly well for the pump with tzipi, although luckily i didn't need to leave her with anyone until she was 18 months, and i just feel like it will really add a level of stress i don't want. i think that my supply should be okay if we switch to just nursing mornings and evenings...

li have no idea what i'm going to do with pumping/nursing once i go back to work. she'll be 10 months, so she'll need formula if i don't pump, which i'm not thrilled about, but i really don't think i want to start pumping at that stage either. i didn't produce particularly well for the pump with tzipi, although luckily i didn't need to leave her with anyone until she was 18 months, and i just feel like it will really add a level of stress i don't want. i think that my supply should be okay if we switch to just nursing mornings and evenings...

I saw a dietitian when my kid was 10 months, because I was worried about feeding him mostly vegetarian (I know, silly). I had quit nursing when he was six months old, but he still ate formula. The dietitian said there was no need to keep giving him formula at 10 months, he would be fine with fortified porridge and gruel + normal food. She said something like "After all, people who quit nursing at ten months don't start giving formula." She also said it was ok to start giving a 10-months old kid regular milk, as long as it didn't displace other foods.

_________________I tend to hook up with people who give me chocolate, but I fail to see how this is a bad thing./tofulish

li have no idea what i'm going to do with pumping/nursing once i go back to work. she'll be 10 months, so she'll need formula if i don't pump, which i'm not thrilled about, but i really don't think i want to start pumping at that stage either. i didn't produce particularly well for the pump with tzipi, although luckily i didn't need to leave her with anyone until she was 18 months, and i just feel like it will really add a level of stress i don't want. i think that my supply should be okay if we switch to just nursing mornings and evenings...

I saw a dietitian when my kid was 10 months, because I was worried about feeding him mostly vegetarian (I know, silly). I had quit nursing when he was six months old, but he still ate formula. The dietitian said there was no need to keep giving him formula at 10 months, he would be fine with fortified porridge and gruel + normal food. She said something like "After all, people who quit nursing at ten months don't start giving formula." She also said it was ok to start giving a 10-months old kid regular milk, as long as it didn't displace other foods.

I think that's terrible advice and it directly contradicts the advice in Vegan for Life for weaning vegan kids. Formula is significantly more nutritious than any available plant milk. Unless your kid already has a really varied and rich diet and is already weaning himself off milk/formula, milk will of course displace other foods in the same way that breastmilk/formula provide a bulk of some/most kids' calories still at that age.

I think the usual advice is that people use formula, not other types of non-human milk, for the first year. That said, I was weaned at 11 months (my mother had surgery + a doctor whose bfing advice seems terrible in retrospect) and was fed cow's milk, not formula at that point. (Does "regular milk" mean cow's milk?)

yeah, i am not comfortable with that, not for a 10 month old. i really think babies should be getting some breast milk or formula for at least 18 months, not a year, unless they really are good with solid foods and eat a really wide variety. my older kid wasn't close to having a nutritionally balanced diet on solids alone until close to 15-16 months. i have not personally met many toddlers at all that meet that criteria either.

anyway, i don't know... there's a chance she'll be eating solids well enough to go 8-9 hours without any milk, and just make it up when we're home, but based on my experience last time, that will be a stretch, and she'll want/need at least one or two bottles of something.

Could you experiment a little with pumping in a few weeks and see if you produce better for the pump this time? Then maybe you can add a pumping session a day once Lydia's schedule gets more normalized and start putting milk in deep freeze so there's less pressure later on?

I really want to stop pumping but i think e still "needs" breast milk while I am at work a full day. I hate pumping even more now. I get half the amount I got a few months ago because he is eating tons of solids so I have him down to 2 4oz bottles while I'm gone instead of 3. I am worried about going to one but I am barely pumping enough for 2 now. I feel like I work so hard to pump for hardly anything. they say he does fine with less milk at daycare but 2 days a week he is with my partner and he says he asks for milk all day long. but if I can't produce it, I can't produce it. I feel so helpless. he shouldn't need it so much now that he's eating well and over a year right? especially since he is satisfied when we have the day together and only has sips now and then.

On Saturday, I noticed a hard, sore spot on the bottom of my breast. Since then I've been doing a warm compress throughout the day, massaging, pumping before nursing, pumping after nursing, taking extra lechthin, hot shower, dangle nursing. This morning it's not as tender, but it's still pretty lumpy. Any other suggestions? Do I only start to worry if I get a fever? Will is nearly 11 months and this is the first time this has lasted more than one or two feedings.

KDub, it sounds like you are doing everything you can. Hope your lump gets gone soon.

I decided no marijuana while breast feeding for me- the little research I could find said that a baby nursing from a mother who smoked once will have detectable levels of marijuana in their urine for 2 weeks! so it definitely is transfered via breast milk and I'm not going to do it.

I go back to work when LittleMap is 6 months, and we will have moved to a new country 4 days before I start working. So I cannot build up a frozen stash of breast milk prior to starting working. I think we will need to use some formula in the beginning, and I want to be prepared. What are the brands of vegan formula? I found one called Nature's One but it says not to be used until the little one is one year old.

From what I understand, mapmapmap, there aren't any *truly* vegan formulas because they all at least contain D3, however I believe there are some that are free of corn syrup and GMOs. I'm not sure of a brand, but I know there are people on here who will probably be able to recommend some to you.

My only advice if you're going to have to give formula is to introduce it early, before you need it. I had major supply issues and poopiebaby had failure to thrive, but by the time I tried introducing formula (around 3 months) he simply wouldn't take it no matter what I did.

We use Earth's Best formula. Like poopie said, no formula is 100% vegan because of the added D3. Most formulas also have added DHA/ARA, from vegan sources. And all formulas have added sugars because they are replicating the level of sugar in breastmilk - it's just a matter of deciding which sugars bother you more, corn or rice (I kind of feel like it's all the same, and rice has the added arsenic danger). Here, your choices are between one of the big brand soy formulas (generally not organic), Earth's Best (organic, uses corn syrup - not high fructose) and Baby's Only (organic, uses brown rice syrup; it's a "toddler" formula, but I know people who have used it for infants without issue).

We've liked Earth's Best and never had to try anything else (we did use the dairy formula the hospital gave us when we first ran into supply issues) - Malka's never rejected it and she moved pretty seamlessly from a mostly breast milk diet to an all formula diet over her first 3 months of life. One thing that a lot of people do is mix formula and breastmilk to make it more palatable to a baby who's used to just one.

mapmapmap, fwiw, you could take a pretty big stash with you frozen, if you want at least a little to start. You might want to find out what brands of formula are available in the country where you're moving. There are two brands available here in the UK...we supplemented with WySoy (I can't remember why we picked it over the other brand). They contain D3, but are otherwise vegan. I'd definitely agree to try littlemap out with a couple of bottles sooner rather than later, as babies sometimes don't react well to soy (or certain brands, or formula in general, etc.)

Reff- I've read on here that some people have airplane traveled with frozen milk. is it limited to how much baby might reasinably need during journey? or because it is frozen (solid) is it exempt from liquid restrictions?

I dunno about frozen, but fresh in the US it is supposed to be in "reasonable" quantities. It is exempt from the regular liquids and considered a medical liquid. I traveled with fresh breast milk without my baby and they have to do a pat down and look through all my stuff and test it all for explosives. You do not have to xray it, but not all of them know that, so you have to be firm about your rights.

You can take it in your checked baggage, with no restrictions except for the usual weight limits, and a special limit if you were using dry ice (which isn't necessary really...ice packs work fine for around 24 hours).

In the US, they've actually just changed the rule to eliminate the "reasonable quantities" clause and, importantly for pumping moms, to make it so that you can travel without your baby, but with the milk. Here are the new guidelines: http://www.tsa.gov/traveling-formula-br ... -and-juice. On our flights through Heathrow/EU territory, we carried more than a "reasonable" amount because I wanted to have some to feed Freya on the other end if necessary, not just during the flight. We had no trouble except for one person who was going to make me taste the milk from the bottle. I explained that if I did that, my bacteria, etc would be on the bottle. I said I would pour a bit on my hand, or into a cup, etc. Some eye rolling, but they yielded.

In the EEA, it's all exempt from the 100 ml rule, but I'm not sure that each country has the same guideline regarding how much you can take overall. Icepacks used to keep it cool (or frozen) are also exempts. Are you flying direct from Norway to your destination? You might be able to find answers on Gardermoen's website.

ahhhhhhh Sierra is refusing bottles again. It was extremely inconvenient yesterday when I was trying to cook xmas dinner, but today it is just ridiculous because MY BOOBS ARE HERE AT WORK, KID.She did this for a few days a couple months ago. We chalked it up to teething at that time but no teeth appeared for another month! So now I don't know what to think. She is super-happy to eat solids - we've done some purees recently, and a little cereal - but I know that she needs milk first and foremost. Do I tell H to feed her some solids just to keep something in her stomach, or do we have to "starve" her so she'll take a bottle? I nursed her extensively all night as well as this morning, but even a few hours after I left, H attempted to give her the usual pre-nap bottle and she fought him for 20 minutes before drinking maybe 1oz and then just falling asleep! She is super-cranky and inconsolable, but doesn't feel feverish or even have a runny nose. Gaaaaaaah. It's been an unpleasant couple days, but I truly feel for H as he's having no luck soothing her while I'm at work.